Introduction

When Xerox established the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1970, it created what would become the archetypal model for cross-disciplinary 𝖎 creative research and development. PARC brought together technologists, designers, and creative thinkers in a deliberately open-ended 𝖊 research environment focused on inventing 'the office of the future'.¹ This approach became the genesis of innovations that would fundamentally transform modern computing and society: the graphical user interface (GUI), the computer mouse, object-oriented programming, the personal computer, networked computing, laser printing, and WYSIWYG ('What You See Is What You Get') word processing.² These were not merely technical achievements but represented new paradigms 𝖊 for human-computer interactions. Apple's Lisa and Macintosh computers directly implemented PARC's GUI concepts. Adobe Systems was founded by former PARC researchers John Warnock and Charles Geschke.³

Joining PARC in 1975, artist David Em's collaboration with computer graphics pioneers Dick Shoup (inventor of the frame buffer) and Alvy Ray Smith exemplified this cross-pollination 𝖒. Working with SuperPaint - 'the first complete digital paint system' - they pushed both artistic and technical boundaries. Em created his first digital picture in 1975 using SuperPaint, but his contributions went far beyond individual artworks. Through experimental approaches to these nascent technologies, Em and his collaborators established fundamental techniques for digital image creation and manipulation that would become foundational to computer graphics, digital filmmaking, and the entire creative software industry.

Today, as in the early days of digital computing, societies face the precipice of deep technological transformation. However, unlike the Cold War era that birthed PARC, societies face a fundamentally different set of systemic pressures and imperatives 𝖗. Environmentally, socially, and geopolitically, there is an urgent need for multiperspectival approaches to innovation. The emergence 𝖊 of large language models is reshaping how humans interact with information; blockchain technologies are reimagining ownership and governance; and quantum computing systems fundamentally challenge our understanding of computation itself, promising to revolutionise everything from cryptography to drug discovery. These technologies represent not merely technical advances, but fundamental paradigm shifts in how we organise society, create meaning and values, and understand human agency in technological systems.

Deliberately open-ended cross-disciplinary R&D environments have an important role to play in these societal transitions 𝖗, yet the mode of activity that they represent, and the manner in which it has evolved and proliferated across multiple domains since the 1970s, remains largely misunderstood. This not only represents a historical oversight, but more importantly, it means that many sites of Creative R&D active today - from artists experimenting with AI training datasets to designers prototyping new forms of human-AI collaboration to cultural institutions developing novel governance models for digital commons - often operate without due visibility and legibility, lacking appropriate institutional support and funding frameworks.

It was the recognition of this blindspot that led to Future Art Ecosystems 1: Art x Advanced Technologies (FAE1) in 2020 identifying 'art and advanced technologies' (AxAT) as a distinct domain of cultural production. Rather than engaging with technology purely as a subject matter where interaction remains primarily conceptual, formal, or aesthetic, AxAT practices also develop experimental methodologies that bridge artistic and scientific inquiry, 'challenging and reshaping the role that technologies can play in culture and society'.⁴ This might involve developing new interfaces for interacting with deep neural networks, or collaborating with materials scientists to create responsive bio-materials that challenge assumptions about the boundaries between living and non-living systems. This type of Creative R&D is a key pillar of AxAT activity, even though it is currently not codified.

Creative R&D in AxAT is characterised by several key attributes:

Transversal/Crosscutting Ecosystems: Creative R&D operates across traditional sector boundaries, often involving multi-stakeholder collaborations between cultural organisations, academic research, industry, and independent practices.

Inter/Transdisciplinary: Creative R&D in AxAT integrates knowledge and methodologies from diverse fields including art, computer science, engineering, philosophy, biology, and social sciences.

Mission-oriented: rather than being driven primarily by commercial imperatives or academic metrics, AxAT Creative R&D often addresses broader societal challenges and explores alternative technological futures. This orientation allows AxAT to function as a third space for technology development, intersecting with industry and research but maintaining a discrete position that enables unique forms of experimentation and inquiry.

Technological Interrogation: Creative R&D in AxAT engages in critical implementation, narrativisation, and the development of technologies and technological conditions, examining their social, ethical, and cultural implications.

Technology-agnostic: whilst technologies of distribution and presentation have dominated creative technology initiatives, AxAT Creative R&D can apply to all advanced technologies, from artificial intelligence and cryptography to biotechnology.

Institutional Hybridity: AxAT Creative R&D does not have a natural sector home and is currently hosted by different actors across cultural institutions, academic departments, industry labs, and independent studios.

The aim of Future Art Ecosystems 5: Art x Creative R&D (FAE5) is to shift the status quo and to move towards codification by showing how artistic and cultural practices contribute to innovation and public value 𝖛 ecosystems through Creative R&D that is conducted in the context of AxAT. The briefing illuminates critical, but frequently undervalued, aspects of (creative) R&D: artistic experimentation that facilitates technological innovation, the cultivation of hybrid 𝖎 skill sets bridging technical and cultural domains, and the emergence 𝖊 of new organisational models enabling cross-sectoral knowledge transfer. FAE5 also draws focus to how cultural organisations that host AxAT activity enable a critical societal response mechanism 𝖗 in rapidly changing technological landscapes while simultaneously supporting the emergence of a more nuanced understanding of art's role in driving innovation 𝖒.

With technical systems central to social, economic and political life - from AI reshaping information flows and the ways science is conducted to smart materials and geoengineering technologies restructuring our relationship with the physical environment - the democratic significance of spaces that overlap with, but remain adjacent to, the technology industry becomes paramount. These adjacent spaces provide critical sites for experimentation, and constructive course correction that can influence the trajectory of technological development. FAE5, therefore, examines how, through Creative R&D, AxAT practices serve as adaptation engines to increase institutional resilience 𝖗, develop experimental methods and tools, and improve technological and cultural literacy. Outside of conventional artwork commissioning and exhibition-making, the activities that drive this function can include cross-sector residencies and production pipelines, new tooling experiments, and governance prototyping.

The perspective that FAE5 presents reveals the distinctive feedback loops 𝖎 between cultural production, technological development, economic and public value creation 𝖛 that currently are not captured, remaining generally invisible to policymakers. By mapping these connections, we articulate a case for Creative R&D as a distinct and expansive mode of cultural activity - one that serves not merely as a complement to conventional innovation but as a vital foundation for global leadership in sustainable, inclusive technological development and resilient democratic societies 𝖗.

AxAT is fundamentally an international phenomenon. Previous Future Art Ecosystems briefings have reflected this global reality, drawing insights from practices and infrastructures across diverse geographies. However, FAE5 marks a strategic shift towards UK-focused analysis, recognising that while creative and technological practices operate transnationally, policy interventions and the definitional frameworks that govern sectors and industries operate primarily at the state level. As the UK government has increasingly recognised the creative industries as a 'key plank in the UK's growth strategy' and launched substantial investments, such as the £75.6 million CoSTAR programme, there exists an opportunity for specific policy intervention and institutional codification.^{5 6} The Council for Science and Technology's recent advice that the creative industries 'remain under-represented' in R&D investment despite their economic contribution, signals a critical moment for establishing Creative R&D as a distinct category of innovation activity.⁷ While our examples remain international in scope - reflecting the inherently global nature of creative and technological communities - our analysis focuses on the UK context to support targeted policies and institutional frameworks that can serve as models for other national innovation ecosystems.

Nationally and transnationally, the effects of Creative R&D are often most powerful at the ecosystemic scale, where multipliers and spillovers 𝖒 create value 𝖛 that transcends individual projects and/or organisations.⁸ The scientific and technological sectors benefit from well-established impact and innovation frameworks, while humanities and cultural work - despite their crucial role in shaping ideas, values and public interest - often struggle for recognition and investment. When a digital artist develops novel techniques for AI-generated imagery, the 'output' extends far beyond the immediate artwork or technical innovation. Value 𝖛 emerges through adoption by other practitioners, influence on design trends, shifts in public discourse about technology, and the cultivation of new aesthetic vocabularies that shape how society understands emerging technologies. Evaluation frameworks that are designed for linear innovation processes struggle to capture this networked impact 𝖛 𝖎. Equally, while scientific and technological R&D frameworks explicitly acknowledge that risk of failure is inherent to the innovation process - with established protocols for managing and learning from unsuccessful outcomes - no such system has been devised for the process of Creative R&D.

These gaps have real consequences. They lead to an overemphasis on initiatives with easily quantifiable outputs - publications, IP, direct commercial applications - that follow predictable pathways from research to market, while undervaluing the long-term economic, societal and 'soft power' benefits 𝖛 of a thriving creative ecosystem. The challenge for policy frameworks today is recognising that supporting Creative R&D processes - rather than predetermined outcomes - may require different risk management approaches than those developed for traditional innovation ecosystems. This process-oriented investment model acknowledges that Creative R&D functions as a source of unique outputs as well as a means of catalysing innovation 𝖒 across other sectors.⁹

The FAE5 briefing is structured around four chapters. The first chapter locates Creative R&D as a technologically focused form of artistic and cultural activity cutting across different sectors and domains such as culture, academia and technology. Referencing the UK context, the chapter builds on existing work establishing Creative R&D within the policy context in order to propose an expanded framework precise enough for direct policy application, yet inclusive enough to support a more diverse set of practices than are currently captured by this somewhat elusive term.

The second chapter focuses on artists as critical agents driving Creative R&D within the AxAT ecosystem. Far from isolated creatives dedicated exclusively to self-expression, artists function as connectors, translators, and catalysts 𝖒 of innovation. Through case studies of artistic practices that exemplify R&D approaches, we illustrate how artists develop new tools, methodologies, and frameworks that generate value 𝖛 beyond traditional artistic outputs. The chapter identifies the barriers that currently limit artists' capacity to fully realise their potential as R&D agents, such as misalignments with available funding structures, and expectations around IP and commercialisation, or equally, being relegated to 'public engagement' roles rather than acknowledged as genuine research collaborators.

The third chapter examines how different types of cultural organisations serve as vital anchors within the AxAT Creative R&D ecosystems. It examines how cultural organisations (i.e., the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums sectors (GLAM)) have evolved their relationships with technology, with some moving upstream in development processes to actively participate in creating prototyping environments, establishing cross-disciplinary 𝖎 research partnerships, and developing tools that inform technological conception and construction. We evidence how various organisational forms - from established cultural institutions to artist-led studios to new specialist organisations - incubate Creative R&D processes that catalyse 𝖒 internal GLAM sector innovation and feed into the broader innovation ecosystems, plugging into larger civic, technological, research and policy contexts. The chapter proposes that by better understanding these dynamics, we can develop more effective strategies for supporting Creative R&D as a vital component of cultural, technological, and economic development nationally and transnationally.

The final chapter builds on the case for Creative R&D put forward in the first three to make a series of proposals to policymakers and public funding bodies. The proposals are the following:

1. Establish a Cross-Departmental Entity for the Advancement of Creative R&D

2. Broaden the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's (DSIT) Definition of R&D to Encompass Creative R&D

3. Adopt Ecosystem Measurement Models

4. Diversify Funding Mechanisms and Approaches to Account for the Full Spectrum of Creative R&D Activity

FAE5 emerged from research conducted by Serpentine Arts Technologies and its Future Art Ecosystems team and combines qualitative insights from practitioners and organisations across multiple sectors with a structured analysis of the policy landscape.¹⁰ We carried out over 35 remote semi-structured interviews. The interviewees included artists whose practices exemplify innovative approaches to technological engagement as well as representatives from public bodies, cultural organisations, technology companies, academic institutions, and civic technology organisations. These conversations were complemented by three roundtable discussions that brought together stakeholders from across policy, industry, and AxAT production contexts. All quoted material in the briefing stems from the interviews and roundtables. Together, these dialogues revealed patterns of consensus and tension that inform our strategic recommendations.

FAE also commissioned targeted research on the current state of play for evaluating Creative R&D impacts. This work is a starting point for the development of new approaches that better capture both tangible and intangible value creation within Creative R&D ecosystems - a critical foundation for advocating for increased investment and policy support. While we provide extensive examples and illustrations throughout this briefing to build a robust case for Creative R&D activity, there remains a notable shortage of quantitative data that captures the full value and impact of these practices. This is precisely because there is no practice of gathering such data at scale.

The FAE5 briefing was written by the FAE team with assistance from Claude Sonnet 3.7 and Opus 4. All references to 'we' throughout the briefing are to the Future Art Ecosystems project.